canion
canion

It has been interesting to experiment with a constructing a personal wiki but I am sure that as a single user I am better served putting this information into DEVONthink. It is less fiddly and better able to bubble-up related information – but I can’t share the information. 🤔

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jack
jack

@canion I'm using both the wiki and DEVONthink without too much trouble so far. I've started to use the wiki for taking notes and keeping DEVONthink as storage for other content and files. It's still evolving though.

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canion
canion

@jack I didn’t realise you were a DevonThink guy too. I’m probably being influenced because I’ve been reading about zettelkasten recently, and have transitioned my working notes out of Bear into DevonThink. I’ve traditionally used DT as a database for storing the work of others.

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jack
jack

@canion I feel like my wiki is more likely to evolve into a sort of zettelkasten thanDEVONthink. Especially the way TiddlyWiki handles content as individual "tiddlers". What I'll probably end up doing is periodically exporting the whole thing as individual "tiddler" files and importing that into DEVONthink. Hoping for the best of both worlds that way.

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canion
canion

@jack I feel you and I are simpatico. I don’t know anybody else who would share my interests in workflow, knowledge management, and understand these methods and software choices!

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twelvety
twelvety

@canion I have been absolutely obsessed (again recently, as I periodically get) with the idea of a personal wiki, largely due to these conversations on M.b. I'm leaning towards TiddlyWiki for the same reasons and purposes @jack mentioned. I tried using DevonThink for that, but to me, DT is better suited for archiving documents and full articles. As soon as I try to use it for anything smaller like thoughts or snippets, it stops being "fun" (which is how Jack described TW, and I heartily agree).

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canion
canion

@twelvety Thanks for commenting on this, because now I’ve discovered you and your content, which is excellent!

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twelvety
twelvety

@canion Well that just made my day—thank you! And I see from digging into your posts that you’re experimenting with DokuWiki. This will be fun to watch (as I also watch closely what @jack is doing with his TW). Do you use a Markdown plugin with DokuWiki, or just regular DW syntax?

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canion
canion

@twelvety I installed a Markdown plugin. I’m actually using a mix of Wiki syntax and Markdown as I play around with it.

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canion
canion

@twelvety @jack As I think about it, it feels that perhaps DevonThink is best suited for content that can/does stand alone (documents, files, etc) whereas a wiki is better placed to support content augmented with commentary, through integrated HTML/hyperlinks.

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jack
jack

@canion Right. I love putting stuff into and getting stuff out of DEVONthink, but I don't enjoy actually working in it.

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jbytes
jbytes

@jack How hard was it to add a custom domain to TiddlyWiki? I'm thinking of starting one, but before I jump in, want to know how much time this will take.

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jack
jack

@joshsullivan I use the Node module, tiddlywiki and proxy with nginx on my own server. Details here. The domain can be anything configured to point to that server. An easier way in would be to just open the wiki (html) file locally in Firefox (with the Timimi add-on) and occasionally upload the HTML file to a server somewhere for sharing. That's what I started with. If you have questions I'm happy to try and help.

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jbytes
jbytes

@jack I have some time this weekend, I'll give it a shot and let you know if I run into any issues, thanks!

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jack
jack

@joshsullivan The drawbacks with TiddlyWiki are all around saving. 3 best options I've found: Firefox with Timimi add-on, TiddlyDesktop, or node. First two are super simple and only involve opening an HTML file. Node is more involved but not hard and also a good option for remote access and editing. Good luck!

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jack
jack

@joshsullivan And a great benefit is that it's all contained in a stand-alone HTML file. For example, click the save icon (checkmark) on my wiki and you'll download a fully-functional complete copy of the entire thing in one file.

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twelvety
twelvety

@canion Neat! I'm trying to stick with Markdown for longevity purposes and just because I'm used to writing in Markdown. I'm always that guy worried about file formats and portability, but I've been super encouraged from what I've seen in just the last week of getting back into TW. The community is huge, and my old, old TW-Classic file still loads and runs on a modern browser. Since it's not a closed-source app a company owns, it should always work in one form or another, I think.

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twelvety
twelvety

@canion DT for stand-alone content is exactly where I'm at! I know it can do hyperlinks, but TW is purpose-built to do that stuff better, and it feels more natural. I really want to get a good process for taking notes on books and putting them into TW. (Hopefully one tiddler per note/thought, all of them back-linked to a tiddler for the overall book.)

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jack
jack

@twelvety I've been approaching it as one tiddler per book and an index. I thought one/thought was a bit too granular but I'd love to see it in action. Here's mine so far

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twelvety
twelvety

@jack Very nice! I may convert my TW from a standalone HTML to Node on a server just so I can make mine visible like yours. I've learned so much from your notes!

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frankm
frankm

@canion Do you link information together in DEVONthink? I use Evernote in a manner similar to how you describe using DEVONthink, it has become a repository within which I occasionally search information. Repository/search provides storage and retrieval of information but doesn't build knowledge. I think building knowledge comes from relating/linking information together, and I find wiki that is what wiki is optimized to do.

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canion
canion

@twelvety After saying I used Markdown, I have just gone through and converted everything back to wiki syntax. There were some rendering bugs and some index automation didn’t work with Markdown. Plus I figure it will be handy to learn wiki syntax.

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canion
canion

@frankm I’ve played with DEVONthink linking, both with Item Links and Wiki Links, but it never seems fluid. So I haven’t built an effective process around it.

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jack
jack

@canion @twelvety Trying to use Markdown where it isn't the default (e.g. in a wiki) is swimming upstream most of the time. Besides, wiki markup is still all plain text and just as portable and future proof as Markdown. I create documents in Markdown, Org-mode, and wiki markup pretty interchangeably and don't feel enough friction to worry about it.

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twelvety
twelvety

@jack @canion Both of your experiences are making me rethink using Markdown in TW. It does now seem like it’s smarter to speak the native wikitext language and use TW for its strengths. Plus, Markdown and wikitext formatting in one tiddler would probably look ugly. Yet another thing to tinker with tonight (and I’m not complaining).

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jack
jack

@twelvety I tried using Markdown in TiddlyWiki for about a day before giving up and decided it was better to "think like TiddlyWiki". So far, so good. I look forward to hearing how it goes.

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soypunk
soypunk

@jack Are you running node.js on a DigitalOcean/Linode type instance or are you using the AWS Lamba plugin for TiddlyWiki? Trying to decide what way to go after I outgrow glitch's space limitations.

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jack
jack

@soypunk I'm using node on an EC2 instance. I didn't know there was such a thing as a Lambda plugin. Have to look into that, too, although I'm having no significant issues with node so far.

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soypunk
soypunk

@jack yeah, it is an official plugin written by the main TiddlyWiki maintianer. it is ... tersely documented but seems reasonably straightforward if you know your way around things like AWS.

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In reply to
twelvety
twelvety

@soypunk @jack @canion @frankm @joshsullivan @paulcraig901 All I can say, after looking through this thread again, and the ones about paper vs. digital book notes: I have found my people.

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jack
jack

@twelvety It's a great place with a great community. I love it here.

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canion
canion

@twelvety Amen brother.

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paulcraig901
paulcraig901

@twelvety Such a great thread... such great folks. Thanks to all who have contributed. Found some things I didn’t know about and might try.

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dixonge
dixonge

@twelvety @canion I ended up settling on DokuWiki myself. Not that I've used it extensively, but I have done some initial reviews (books, web sites, ted talks, etc.)

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twelvety
twelvety

@mexpat Thanks for sharing! Have you customized it at all or are you just using the default theme/setup? One thing that's attactive to me about DokuWiki is how it's powered by individual text files.

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jack
jack

@twelvety I like that about DokuWiki. Related, one of the benefits of running TiddlyWiki via Node.js is that it stores each "tiddler" as a separate text file. Here's mine (committed and pushed nightly via cron job on the server).

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twelvety
twelvety

@jack This appeals to me on a deeply nerdy level, and also because while it's neat that TW normally stores everything in one file, it definitely feels better now that Node.js can store the data separately from the main app file. Thanks!

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